Extensible Markup Language (XML) and Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformations (XSLT) are evolving technologies, and it is hard to find a single resource on them to recommend without hesitation. This book is such a resource, for the serious Web developer interested in the application of XSLT.

The book is divided into seven macro-chapters: “XML and the Web,” “The Source Definition,” “Elements of a Web Site,” “An Overview of XSLT,” “The XSLT Stylesheet,” “XML Software,” and “XML on the Server.” Each chapter is further divided into three or four sections, and is complemented with a brief bibliography and a well-organized index.

This is not a beginner’s tutorial on XSLT; the book assumes a previous practical knowledge about Web development in general, and XML-XSLT in particular. There is no coverage of the use of document object model (DOM) or simple application programming interface (API) for XML (SAX) parsers to produce XML representations of how to store and retrieve XML from databases.

One of the nice features of the book is its emphasis in the design of correct and accurate schemas, prior to jumping into transformation issues. From this point of view, the book is not a step-by-step guide to how to use XSLT, but rather a reference on how to efficiently use XSLT to produce high impact and high performance Web sites.

Readers should pay special attention to sections 2.2 and 2.3, which cover practical schematization and the art of source definition. The material found in these sections is not present in any other book, as far as I know, and marks the difference between a book written by a serious and real Web developer and the usual “how-to” and “tricks” approach.

While XSLT is the core of the book, it also covers the development of an XML vocabulary for a Web site (section 2.2), choosing a schema language and writing a schema (section 2.3), designing stylesheets (chapter 5), checking file existence and generating images via extension functions (section 5.5), and batch processing with XSLT for automatic generation/regeneration of a whole Web site (section 5.6).

Another useful feature is the abundant code examples, which are well-written and commented, and are general enough to be used as ideas, or even as starting prototypes.

The graphic design of the book is excellent, offering good typography and text disposition, which eases reading. The style is concise and clear, but the depth of some topics deserves pauses, to assimilate and test the techniques proposed. So, a reader could easily spend two or three weeks for the first cover-to-cover reading. This is an excellent work, which does justice to an excellent technology.